You can read about it here: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/15/labour-leadership-candidates-ideologically-driven-union-crackdown

But that's not really what I want to discuss. I genuinely can not understand why the Left have ramped up their use of 'ideological' as a pejorative term. I just don't understand it any way. Every decision the Tories make is lambasted as 'ideologically driven', as though basing decisions within an ideological framework is inherently evil. Surely loads of (all of?) Labour's policy positions are also 'ideologically driven'? As is the case for all political parties. So why use the term in a negative way?! Indeed, is it even possible to make a political decision that *isn't* ideological?

Is the use of the phrase trying to make an argument appear somehow more intellectually rigorous than it actually is? Or an attempt to cover a lack of substance in the counter-argument?

If i'm honest, it irks me. I am irked.